Panic buying redux.
Mannings seems to have had no new mask intake since the great mask run of early February. Very strange... big corporation hasn’t been able to get masks while virtually all the small pharmacies have had them since early March.
It's possible they have "standards" they maintain re masks. It would be consistent with their brand image. Most of the masks easily purchased are clearly cheap and probably not surgical quality. I saw 3M masks in TST a couple of days back in boxes which looked like the box was made from a photocopy not a real one.... Hence high risk of it being fake.
Seriously, stop making things up in your head. I actually do know an owner of one of the small pharmacies that still manages to sell face masks and like everything else that is in high demand around the world, getting stock of face masks in has meant paying a marked up price, and then it is reflected in the sales price to the public. Selling a box of 50 normal surgical masks for $280 makes him a profit of $15-20 tops.
The big chains are unwilling to pay that price to get stock in, so they’ve been trying hard to source elsewhere in hope of buying them cheap, just like every other company in the world.
I've two boxes of masks sourced from those pharmacies. I like them, because I like breathing. They are cheap and flimsy - perfect for me (not so much those thinking they actually do much).
Cross-posting from the news thread- if Shenzhen has its way, drivers need to provide health certificates to cross the border, meaning possible future shortages. Time to panic buy whatever it is you need to get by...at least grab some extra toilet paper on the way home...
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compone...7-20200402.htm
Supermarket today had no butter. None whatsoever. Some marg but not butter. Grrr. I didn't think the "home baking" lark was likely to take off in HK with our lack of ovens!
Rich pipple's shops like Gold Coast Jason's and Aegean Coast Fusion no more butter or flour ... head up to USelect in Sam Shing or Kam Kee by Yan Oi market; doesn't seem to be any shortage of such things there.